Where to Ride

Airlie Beach is completely surrounded by beautiful National Park; until recently these trails were off-limits to mountain bikers.

June 2012 saw the opening of the Whitsunday Great Walk (WGW) to mountain bikers – the response was incredibly positive. Both walkers and riders are enjoying the use of the trails in harmony and word is spreading quickly attracting many visitors to the area.

The WMTBC and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services (QWPS) have been working together opening more trails (South Molle Island & Conway ‘Picnic Tracks’) improving trail signage and discussing maintenance and development. We are very lucky to have pristine rainforest in our backyard and we’re passionate about looking after it.
We’d love to show you, join us some time and please use our ‘Feedback Form’ to let QWPS know about your experience!

2013 has seen some of the most exciting developments in Australian mountain bike history; with two premier riding destinations receiving unprecedented amounts of funding for trail building projects and the announcement of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships returning to North Queensland.

Atherton has been awarded $1 million for the realisation of a 60-kilometer trail network, while a further $2.5 million has been granted for three separate trail building developments across Tasmania.

These grants fall under the regional development umbrella; it’s a huge vote of confidence in mountain biking as a driver of economic benefit for regional areas.

Mountain biking is big business with ‘destination mountain bikers’ loading the car with bikes and heading off to ride a number of different trails in different centres.

Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays are right on the fringe of an outstanding distribution of world-class mountain bike trials in towns including Townsville, Atherton and Cairns. Currently we’re missing out, but given that Airlie Beach is already a destination town in it’s own right, it won’t be hard to convince mountain bikers to pop into Airlie for a ride!

World to Focus on North Queensland Mountain Biking

It’s hard to believe that it has been almost 18 years since sunny Cairns hosted the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships – the one which put a young Cadel Evans on the podium as a junior racing to an outstanding finish well above all expectations!

And now Cairns gets to host the party again, and not just once, but three times. The UCI has announced that two rounds of the World Cup will be held in Cairns in 2014 and 2016, with the main event, the World Championships, returning in 2017.

The announcement has certainly energised the whole of North Queensland and Australian mountain biking; and not just the riders. Right across the region people are buzzing about mountain biking. It’s back on the front page and we all want to be involved!

Now is the best time to ramp up interest and investment in mountain biking infrastructure; for the next five years, Queensland is going to be in the mountain biking spotlight worldwide!